Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

Your mindset is your mental attitude or disposition which affects the way you handle  situations that arise in your business.  Whether you market online on a full-time or part-time basis, you must have the correct mental attitude in order to experience success.  And the key to the correct
attitude is to treat what you’re doing as a  business rather than a hobby.  A hobby is something that you indulge in from time to time when the whim takes you, and you cannot afford to approach your internet marketing business in that way.

It's important for us as entrepreneurs to recognize that if we provide products or services, there are thousands more entrepreneurs providing the same types of products or services, so our mental attitude or disposition is what will determine how we handle a customer inquiry, a customer concern, any type of customer service issue.  Think about this for a moment:  by having an online business your market will be global.  Therefore, it means you could be dealing with persons in different time zones.  Would you be prepared to take a customer call at 2:00 a.m. your time zone?  Have you mentally prepared yourself for such an eventuality?  It would be interesting to hear how other online marketers have handled this situation when they had to take a customer service call at an ‘odd' time.

Keeping a positive mindset or mental attitude will allow you to deal with ‘inconveniences' when you are just getting started, knowing that how you handle these so-called inconveniences is the foundation that could lead to exponential growth in your business.  It seems to take a long time to build a good reputation online, one that allows people to know, like and trust you.  On the other hand that reputation could be lost in a flash if we fail to display a position mental attitude that supports growth in our online business.

Customers may be unhappy for a number of reasons: the product did not meet their expectations, they did not experience the desired results, they were dissatisfied with the color or texture; they may regret an impulsive purchase and would like to have a refund, or because buying often involves the emotions the initial enthusiasm for the product has waned.

Regardless of the reason for the dissatisfaction, how you respond to the complaint makes the difference between customer retention and customer abandonment. Successful entrepreneurs and small business owners recognize that tact and discernment are necessary to cultivating and maintaining good customer relationships. Your goal should be to keep your customers happy to the extent possible.  Not only is this the wise course from a business perspective, but is also the best course from a relationship point of view.  While there are some persons who will rarely be satisfied, your main concern should be to do your part to retain your customer.

It has been said that when someone is happy with your products or service they will tell three people, but when they are dissatisfied they share this with 3,000.  Which would you prefer? Responding promptly and offering to correct the situation is the most effective route to take in
addressing  dissatisfaction and increase customer retention.  Make it seem to the customer that this was the easiest thing to correct and, in
fact, you appreciate that they brought it to your attention. Follow-up with a card of appreciation for their continued business.

People want to be made to feel important and if you can genuinely keep them feeling that way, they will leave your space feeling that you really appreciate them and they would rather do business with you than anyone else who may provide similar products and services.